


So Many Trips Around the Sun

by Diddleydont



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, College AU, Everyone has some weird health shit tho, Everyone is alive and making their way to happy, F/F, F/M, M/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-23
Updated: 2018-03-25
Packaged: 2018-12-05 19:51:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 11,814
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11585022
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Diddleydont/pseuds/Diddleydont
Summary: After their freshman year of college it seems that Nepeta's friends are really starting to get their life sorted and they are finally reaching their happy endings. She'd like to do they same,  but between her seizures and the freaky grey-skinned hallucinations that come with them, she's having a rough time.





	1. The Chapter in Which Nepeta Goes to a Robotics Competetion

**Author's Note:**

> Okay so in this AU, I'd like to call "Remnants from the Retcon Timeline manifests itself as some freaky health shit" most every non-fatal injury is from shitty luck, (E.I Meulin was born without most of her hearing, Tavros getting into a terrible accident and no longer having use of his legs) and not the direct reaction of something another troll or human did. I know that sounds odd but just follow along for a little bit it'll get explained eventually I promise. Also I uploaded this chapter as soon as I finished it, so I apologize in advance for any grammar or spelling errors. Thanks for reading! :)

“But you had better believe I’ll see you soon, Equius!” Nepeta turned towards the door, and just as she opened it…  
She woke up.  
Groaning, she swung off of her bed and checked her alarm clock, it was a few minutes before she thought she needed to get up. She stretched and made her way to her closet, picked out a decently nice looking sports bra and a pair of overalls and threw them on quickly, before walking down the stairs of her sister’s rustic style two story and into the kitchen.  
“Good Morning, Nepeta!” Meulin yelled out from her seat and the dining table. Nepeta cringed at the volume.  
“Turn your hearing aids up, please.” Meulin’s husband, Kurloz, signed at her from across the table. Meulin blushed and expertly adjusted them.  
“Sorry, ‘peta.” Meulin said, this time at a much lower volume than before.  
“You know you don’t have to apawlogize to me.” Nepeta said with a smile. Though she had outgrown cat puns towards the end of middle school and thought they were a little embarrassing now, she’d still slip in a few in front of her sister because Meulin absolutely adored them. Nepeta turned to the door leading outside and slipped on the pair of muddy galoshes used solely for going out to the barn.  
After Kurloz and Meulin bought their house, they established a cat rescue. After her first year of college, Nepeta asked if she could pay rent for one of Kurloz and Meulin’s guest bedrooms. Anything else was better in the dorms and she knew she shouldn’t live on her own, on account of her epilepsy.  
She had her first seizure shortly a few weeks after she turned thirteen. She was home alone with Meulin at the time, her mother had taken the family car to the store to pick up some groceries. She was in the living room, standing in front of the TV to bother Meulin, when suddenly she could taste blood on her tongue, and feel the static in the air. She felt a distinct feeling of peace wash over her and she lost consciousness.  
She regained consciousness about four minutes later , on the floor, to see her sister worriedly speaking over the phone. She didn’t think Meulin put her hearing aids in that day? She couldn’t quite make out what she was saying. She couldn’t even move off the ground. She begun to regain movement as the ambulance pulled up to their house. She was but on a stretcher and put in the car and their mother was alerted.  
She remembered feeling extremely confused as the paramedics tried to explain that she had had a seizure and needed and would need to stay at the hospital to get checked out by a doctor. Why would she have a seizure? Didn’t only epileptic people get those? She was set up in a hospital room, one with two beds, but she was the only one, besides her sister in the room. When their mother arrived she looked pale and nervous. She explained that what happened, while scary, was not as drastic or as scary as they thought. After a few more seizures and a few more doctors appointments, she was officially diagnosed with epilepsy. Nepeta would have to swim with a life jacket, she had to quit gymnastics altogether, and she would never get her drivers license. She’d never really live alone, her seizures were too frequent and gave too little of an aura to give her enough time to, say turn off and get away from a burning stove.  
Her thoughts were interrupted by the buzzing of her phone, she picked it up and read the text:  
Feferi: Hey ill be there in fifteen minutes, so ‘bee’ ready, okay?  
Nepeta: Sure thing, filling up the last bowl now and then ill brush my hair and teeth and grab a granola bar.

Nepeta filled the last bowl and stopped to pet her favorite cat, Jasper, on the head. It’s white fur reminded her alot of her first cat, Pounce de Leon. Good cat, that one was. When she walked back into the kitchen she picked up a note on the kitchen table.  
“Meulin and I already left for a Doctors appt. Sorry to leave early, thanks for taking morning duty for me. :)  
Kurloz”  
She smiled and set the paper down. She remembered when Meulin first brought him home, skeleton paint, and cult and all. He seemed so scary back then. After he moved away from his crazy dad he really calmed down. He stopped wearing his facepaint and finally got the haphazard stitches taken out of his mouth. The scars were still there, little dots in a line on his upper and lower lips. Meulin was a really calming presence for him and they were both lucky to find someone who accepted their quirks and flaws. She threw on her shoes and scrubbed her teeth, then walked out to the front porch to wait for Feferi to roll up in her car.  
A few minutes later, Feferi pulled into the yard and Nepeta walked up the car and sat in the front seat, noticing Eridan and Aradia in the backseat.  
“I told them you called shotgun last night when you asked for a ride,” Feferi said with a wink. Nepeta never asked for the front seat, but Feferi would often let her have her pick of wherever she wanted to sit. Feferi looked ill again, Nepeta noticed, Her normally light brown skin took on an olive green tone and it looked like she had went down another ten pounds. Feferi also had a weird health issue happen to her when she turned thirteen. She would get these massive stomach aches, making her sick whenever she ate. They come and go now, but they still hit hard whenever she has them. Hell, they all had weird health issues. Aradia had mood swings, Sollux and Gamzee had headaches, Equius had acute asthma, the list went on and on.  
“So where are you living at over the summer, Fef?” Nepeta asked, Feferi’s hometown was a small beach city in Hawaii, but went to Skaia University like Nepeta. They, like most of their friends, met through a chatroom called pesterchum and became fast friends.  
“I’m renting a little beach house on the other side of town.” Feferi responded gleefully. “It’s right on the beach and it has a great view.” Feferi was also loaded. Her mom owned Betty Crocker and some other businesses on the side. Her mom was also a major bitch.  
“W-Why the hell is your family so obsessed with cats?’ Eridan asked from the backseat. He always had this speech impediment that made him stutter on his w’s and to pronouce his v’s oddly.  
Nepeta rolled her eyes. “I’m Egyptian, my mother is-” She choked on her words and corrected herself, “was a Kemetic and raised us with that in mind. We worship Egyptian gods. Cats snitch on evil spirits to the sun god Ra, who smacks the shit out of them and sends them back to the underworld.”  
“W-Weird.”  
“I think it’s cool, Nepeta. In fact, next year I will be taking a trip with my professor to Egypt to excavate a few tombs.” Aradia said happily. She loved archeology, though she originally thought she wanted to be a paleontologist.  
“Really? Well remember to be careful and respectful, okay? You wouldn’t wanna piss off anyone by messing up their grave.” The drive became comfortably silent after that, the pop station Feferi had on blaring a mindless song about love and summertime.  
The car pulled into the parking lot and Nepeta read “National Robotics Competition.” It was Skaia University’s first year competing. Was the first year Skaia had a team skilled enough to compete. They walked up to the door and showed the tickets they had paid ahead for.  
“So do you think that we’re going to place this year?” Feferi asked.  
“Of course! Equius was buildin’ robots since he could w-walk.” Eridan snorted out. They were truly an odd couple. They shared an engineering class freshman year and Equius, being the socially awkward person he is, chose a partner he knew best, no matter how unpleasant he seemed to be. They hated each other at first. Nepeta was often on the listening end of a scathing text rant about Eridan’s classroom ego. But as the year went on, Eridan proved himself to be rather skilled when it came to mixing chemicals, whereas Equius realised he should stick with robotics. Somehow they bonded and soon discovered there was a romantic chemistry between them and begun dating.  
“And don’t you dare forget about Sollux’s coding skills!” Feferi said. “He could hack into pretty much anything.”  
“And he wastes all that talent on modding Minecraft.” Aradia said suddenly, after going so quiet, Nepeta almost forgot she was there. “And luckily they have Dirk on their team to double check both programming and engineering, and luckier still they have Roxy to out talent all of them and keep thier egos in check.”  
They found some seats in the first row and sat down, Aradia and Feferi excused themselves to get snacks while Eridan and Nepeta sat in a comfortable silence and played on their phones.  
“Y’know what they’re actually doin’ w-with the robot they built? I asked Eq an he said some weird technical bullshit that only got more confusing after I tried to google it.”  
“I think they’re trying to build a-” Nepeta broke of for a second, seeing Rose and Kanaya walk through the doors. “We’re over here!” She yelled to them, grabbing their attention. She didn’t know if they’d be here but she assumed with Roxy and Dirk being in the competition they would be. “ I think they’re building a robot that does stuff underwater. It’s either supposed to be really heavy or really light, I forgot.” She said, carrying on her previous conversation with Eridan.Rose and Kanaya sat down in the bleachers behind them.  
“If we all sit together it will be easier for them all to see us.” Kanaya said, addressing Rose, “Also could you please text Dave so he and Karkat know where we’re sitting?”  
“Sure, but hypothetically couldn’t a certain person with either Dave or Karkat’s number text them, themselves instead of pestering their girlfriend to do it?” Rose teased with a wry smirk.  
“She could, if she were not busy entertaining her friends,” and without even a breath of pause, Kanaya turned her head and swiftly said “Hello Nepeta and Eridan how might you be today?” and flashed a smirk to Rose.  
“Well we’re doing just fine! Thank you so very much for asking Kanaya. It was especially easy to find a seat considering that beautifully written prose that was the text you didn’t send telling us where you were so we could all sit together.” Karkat said angrily, walking up to the benches and flopping down angrily by them, with Dave, Aradia and Feferi (The latter with snacks in either hand) in tow. He was in a breezy tank top and shorts, Nepeta noticed. Karkat was her next door neighbor for her entire childhood. On a cold winter night that she would never forget, she heard a scream come from his house. He ran out of the house, without shoes and a shirt and threw himself into a snowbank, screaming that he was burning and needed to cool down. He was taken to the hospital, and they couldn’t find anything except a possible testosterone deficiency. She knew he still had them from time to time, but handled them a lot better.  
“Nepeta. Nepeta. Stop staring at me like that.” Karkat snapped, bringing Nepeta from her thoughts.  
“Shit. Sorry Karkat, I started zoning out and you were caught in my line of sight.” Nepta replied. He stared at her for a few minutes before grunting out an “Uh huh” of skepticism. Nepeta had a huge crush on him in middle school, and it still made things awkward between the two. As Nepeta starting making more friends and starting seeing Karkat interact others, she realized that his brand of abrasive friendship wasn’t what she was really looking for in a relationship. She moved on and as the years went on he tried his best to be more openly sensitive around his friends and she tried her best to show she had moved on so they could go back to being friends.  
Before she could say anything or come up with a comeback, Feferi interrupted, “Hush! They’re aboat to start!”  
And so the group quieted down and watched the competition. This wasn’t going to be a battle royale situation, there weren’t any brackets or any robots fighting to death like you’d see on TV, The teams would put their robot in the water and give a demonstration of how much it could withstand, how much it weighed, how resourceful it was, and how easily it flowed through the water. About twenty had passed through before it was Skaia University’s team went.  
Roxy went up as their presenter, gave a few opening words about how hard her team had worked on their robot, holding it up as she did so. She then set it on the scale. It was one of the lighter ones they’d seen that day. She then discussed what they used to build it. They went no further than their local hardware store. They took large PVC pipes and stuffed them circuitry and pool sponges for buoyancy and insulation. They attached functioning model helicopter wings to each corner for ease of driving. They used a standard drone remote control to move the vehicle. With the judge’s permission, she set it in the water and passed the controller to Sollux who began to drive it with ease. Surprisingly he passed his controller to one of the judges and allowed her to control the robot. The controller was designed with precision and ease in mind. When they started to add water pressure, the robot didn’t crack. They added more and more pressure with the robot starting to give what would have been 300 feet below sea level. Theirs was obviously the superior robot of the teams shown so far.  
A few went after Skaia’s team, but none near as well-built. They took a short intermission and then begun to call prizes and winners. Most went by in a blur. Lightest weight. Most aesthetically pleasing. Etcetera etcetera. Finally the announcement for the actual winner were underway. Feferi and Aradia clasped their hand tightly together.  
“Second Runner Up.” The judge in the center called. “Stanford University!” There was a roar of applause.  
“First Runner Up.” The judge called, “Yale University!” The applause only got louder and suddenly Nepeta felt incredibly dizzy. No. Not here. Please.  
“And First Place!” The judge boomed. Nepeta tried to grab Eridan’s sleeve, but his eyes were glued to the stage. She could taste copper on the back of her throat. “A team that especially surprised us this year- was all she heard before she blacked out and hit the ground.


	2. In Which Nepeta Has A Seizure and Equius Drives a Rolls Royce

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey! Thank you to everyone who left Kudos! And if you just read and didn't leave anything, thank you to you too! Also, I am proof-reading this myself so if there are any mistakes, please send me a comment, so I can fix it!

She wasn’t quite sure where she was. The ground was a pure white sand and the sky was a bright gold. She stood up and looked around with wide eyes and a gaping maw. Large teapots topped large piles of cubes as far as the eye could see. The air felt extremely acrid, as though it had never rained there and had no intention to. A sudden gust of wind blew the sand into her face and she swore it was sweet. Sugar, she decided, after kneeling in the sand and lifting a little to her mouth.  
A shadow suddenly covered her face, she looked up to see a large purple...thing staring down at her. It was straight out of a horror story, easily twice her size with wings, large pincers for hands, and large, intimidating tusks coming out of both of it’s heads. Her body moved without her mind’s consent, jumping up and onto the creature, slicing at it with claws she didn’t realize she had. She sliced both of it’s heads off in one fell swoop, and it seemed to disintegrate from under her, leaving precious jewels in it’s wake. When she touched the jewels they, too, disappeared.  
She turned around to see another monster behind her, a grey fiend with long inky black hair, gruesome half-broken horns, and sweaty skin. Her body leapt unbidden and tackled the monster to the ground. From this close the monster looked like her best friend and closest confidant, Equius.   
“Equius? Equius!” She tried to call out to the monster, only to find her mouth was not listening to her brain, and was instead carrying on an entirely different conversation , one that she couldn’t hear. Equius-Monster seemed a little saddened by whatever she was asking him, but quickly stood to look at something behind her. She turned and saw another monster, this one about four times as big as them and all gangly limbs.   
She looked back at the monster to see it start to see her best friend Equius, flickering from monster to human as though someone kept removing and replacing a shitty snapchat filter. She could feel her seizure ending, her eyes started slowly moving around the room, taking in the concrete ceiling. She became aware of the thighs protecting her head, and twitched, trying to get her body to cooperate into looking up.   
“Eg?” she slurred, hoping that Equius was near enough to hear her.   
“Not quite,” came Feferi’s soothing voice from above her. “Relax, Nepeta, I have you. It’s okay.” Nepeta tried to move a little harder.   
‘Where was Equius? He was here just a minute ago? Where was he?’ She thought, struggling to lift her head to look for him.   
“Shhhh. It’s okay. You’re okay. Just relax, I promise you’re fine, you just need to breathe right now okay?” Feferi soothed, stroking Nepeta’s hair. Nepeta started to regain control of her extremities and became painfully aware of the wet patch on her overalls. She felt like she was going to cry.  
“Fef, how long was it?” Nepeta asked, once she gained control of her tongue. Anything over three minutes would get her taken to the hospital.  
“About a minute and thirty seconds,” Eridan said, from somewhere over on her left.   
“Help me sit up, please.” She felt two hands on either side of her pull her into an upright position, with Dave at her right, steadying her to make sure she didn’t fall. She looked at the room, full of people watching her with worried expressions, and then looked down to see a dark sweater covering her lap. She let out a sigh of relief, at least no one could see the fact that she had urinated herself. The judges, she’d noticed, were also looking at her.   
“Did we win?” She asked, not really directing her question to anyone in particular.   
“Yes. We won. The Judge has yet to give us the trophy, and do all the typical fanfare that comes with it, but yes, on this day. We won.” Rose said from somewhere behind her, with enough gravitas and hope in her voice to do an impression of an old man, in a movie, retelling an inspiring story of his youth.  
“Sweet.” Nepeta replied. “I mean I thought we would, but I just had to check.”   
“Hmm.” Rose hummed in response, ending the conversation. Nepeta turned her head and looked back up at the stage in time to see Roxy shake the Judge's hand and accept the comically large check that the Judge had given her. Nepeta closed her eyes as the flash of about twenty cameras went off, all taking pictures that would end up in tomorrow's newspapers.   
She was so proud of her friends, this was their first year competing and they won first place. Skaia University was an itty bitty little university down in Southern California, it was also where her group of friends agreed to apply. She remembered how alive the chat room seemed that night, with everyone suggesting, and quickly shutting down, ideas. They all knew they wanted to go to college together, so they could all finally see each other. They decided that college would be last time they’d get to be something that even remotely resembled kids, and they wanted to spend it together. It took weeks to find a school that was in everyone's price range and that had a high enough acceptance rate for all of them. It was Karkat who finally found and suggested Skaia University, with its scenic location, multiple majors, and affordable pricing plans, it became the obvious choice.   
Soon enough people started clearing out of the room, until only her group of people, janitors, and the competition officials were left. With the check received and the pictures all taken, the robotics team walked over and sat down. Nepeta watched as Roxy and Dirk sat by Rose, Karkat and their respective significant others. She watched Sollux kiss Feferi on the cheek before moving to see if Aradia was okay. Aradia had gotten awfully quiet in the second half of the competition and was probably in the midst of another one her mood swings. A shadow fell over her face, and she looked up seeing no other than her beloved friend coming to sit down with her.  
“Are you quite alright?” Equius said, his voice taking on a worried tone.   
“Yeah, I’m okay. A little embarrassed I pissed myself in front of an entire group of people, but y’know.” She shrugged. “Thank god for Eridan throwing his sweater on me. Smart thinking.”  
“Nepeta. Please refrain from such uncout-” Nepeta cut him off with a venomous glare that seemed to say, ‘Do you really think this is the time to call me out on profanity?’ He sighed and opened his mouth again, this time almost bashfully. “I am sorry I didn’t come down there. The medic on duty ordered everyone not to move. Of course, our friends did not listen, which in this situation was okay because they have more experiences with your seizures than anyone.”   
“Eq?” She asked, “What happened? I just remember hitting the ground before I started hallucinating. Did I start twitching?  
“Yes, you fell and started to convulse on the ground.” He pulled her closer to him so her head fell into the spot where his neck and shoulder met. “When did you start having hallucinations, again.”  
“About two months ago, during my last seizure.” She said, very tiredly all of a sudden. “It’s funny, you were in it.”  
“I was? Please tell me more about how your amazing and extremely humble friend was in your hallucination.” He joked, flipping his hair with his hand. Equius may not have been known for his sense of humor, but he could be depended on to lighten the mood if it became a bit too dark.  
“It was weird. It was like you were you, but like a really creepy ‘Twilight Zone’ version of you. You had grey skin and broken horns. We were in the land of, like, Little Cubes and Tea or something. I don’t know, it was almost like a video game. I killed a monster.” He gave her a strange, piercing look.  
“Nepeta. I don’t think hallucinations should ever be that in depth. You should go back to the doctor soon and have that checked out.”   
“I know. I know. I promise I’ll look into different seizure meds as soon as I have enough money-”  
“Nepeta!” He interrupted, sounding aghast, “You know if it’s an issue with money I could pay.” Damn. He had her there. She was actively trying to avoid going to the doctor. There was something about these hallucinations that just seemed… Odd. They didn’t seem necessarily real, but they didn’t seem completely fake either. Thankfully, Feferi interrupted before Nepeta had to think of another excuse.  
“Hey Nepeta, if you're up to it, we’re going to have a party at my house to celebrate.” She said, knowing that if Nepeta didn’t feel like going, Equius wouldn’t want to go either.  
“Sure Fef, I think I’m gonna take a power nap and change clothes first.” Nepeta replied.   
“Oh! Of course! The party doesn’t start until eight o’clock anyway.”   
“Alright, also I think I’m gonna have Equius take me home.” Nepeta said, looking up to give Equius puppy-dog eyes. He sighed and nodded.  
“Alright!, Well in that case, I’ll take Sollux home.” Feferi chirped. “And I think Roxy and Dirk are riding with Rose, but I’ll check!” She popped up and almost skipped over to the larger group. Feferi said a few phrases that Nepeta couldn’t quite pick up, before turning back to look at her and nod in confirmation.   
“I’m parked out back.” Equius said as he helped Nepeta get back to her feet. They walked to his car, a Rolls Royce Ghost, and climbed in.   
“So you drove everyone?”   
“Indeed.”  
“Anyone try to smuggle food into your car?” Equius had a strict ‘no food’ rule. He loved cars and machines more than he loved his own brother.  
“Goodness no!” He snorted, pulling out of the parking lot. “How has Meulin been? I haven’t hear much about her in a while.”  
“She’s been doing pretty good. She and Kurloz had a doctors appointment today, but who knows what that’s about.”  
“And how is that brother-in-law of yours?”   
“Gamzee’s good, I guess? Karkat would know more about him than I would.” She said, but if truth be told she tried her best to avoid Gamzee. It wasn’t like he was a bad person per se, but something about him set her on edge. When he was thirteen there was an F.B.I bust at his house to smoke out his cultist father.  
According to Mr. Makara, Gamzee and Kurloz were destined to be gods. The Mirthful Messiahs, he called them. One time, Kurloz had tried to talk back to his father, who in turn, announced to his cult that his son would be taking an oath of silence. Kurloz was permanently silenced by his own father. The nick severing his vocal cords wasn’t enough punishment, and so Kurloz’s mouth was also sewn shut. Fearing his other son would attempt to do the same, Makara started to drug Gamzee, keeping him in a haze. Eventually Kurloz managed to escape his father and the cult of subjugglators, and found Meulin.  
Gamzee wasn’t so lucky. His father kept an extremely close eye on him after that. A few months after Kurloz escaped, the F.B.I came in and stormed the site. Somehow in the midst of the raid, Mr. Makara was shot and fatally wounded. The F.B.I continued their trek through the acreage and found Gamzee, hidden and high in one of the houses. He was taken into a rehab center in a nearby hospital. He went through terrible withdrawals and became violent. One particularly bad episode, he scratched at himself, leaving three long scars across his face. Every time Nepeta saw those scars she felt a shiver of fear course through her. The clown make-up he used to cover it up didn’t do a very good job, either, it just made him look more off-putting. He eventually got checked out and moved in with Kurloz, but there was something weird about him. He always seemed to avoid her too, which made Nepeta even more uneasy.  
They pulled up to her house and went inside. Equius made himself at home on the couch, while Nepeta walked upstairs to take a quick shower and put on a change of clothes. He turned on the nature channel and walked into the kitchen to grab a snack. After spending about fifteen minutes making a sandwich out of what vegetables and cheese was available, he walked back into the living room. When he sat back down, he found Nepeta already showered and wearing new clothes, sitting on the couch.  
“Hey Eq,” She yawned. “I’m gonna take a quick nap, can you wake me up a little bit before the party?” He looked at his wristwatch. It read four o’clock.  
“I’ll wake you up at six thirty so we can get a bite to eat, after we get ready?”  
“Sounds fine. Wake me up then.” She settled down on the couch and settled in for a nap.


	3. In Which Nepeta Gets A New Cat And Almost Feels Sorry For Herself

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone! Welcome to a new chapter, sorry for the wait!

“Nepeta.” She felt a hand shaking her shoulder. She groaned and rolled over in response. “Now Nepeta, please wake up we don’t want to be late to Feferi’s party.”  
“Ugh, fine.” She pulled herself off the couch lazily, and stretched her arms above her head. “I’m gonna go brush my hair before we go.” She said, bracing herself to turn. “And I should probably brush my teeth too!” She jumped near him and placed her mouth close to his nose and exhaled, letting out a large dose of post-nap breath.   
“Nepeta!” He groaned in exasperation, pushing her away. “That was the worst thing I’ve had to smell since the time Horuss forgot to clean the stables for two weeks, please go brush your teeth.” She smiled and walked upstairs.  
She sat in her bathroom and took a look in the mirror, same olive skin that was never completely clear, same thick, curly, black hair that never seemed to do what she wanted, same green eyes she’d inherited from her mother. Her eyes were probably her favorite feature of herself, her pupils always looked a little elongated, which people would mention when they met her, not that she minded of course. Maybe she’d put on a little eyeliner of Meulin's to help them stand out.   
She brushed her teeth and combed her hair, pulling it up into a pair of short curly pigtails, and upon making a split second decision, threw some eyeliner on. It may have looked smudgy but she hoped it looked smudgy in a cool, uncaring but still attractive way. She paused to check her phone’s battery. Well shit. Looks like she was bringing her portable charger tonight, considering her phone was at seven percent.She grabbed her portable charger out of her room and walked down the stairs gracefully on her toes, momentarily pretending she was a ballerina.  
“Alright Eq! You ready?” She asked, lightly hoping off the bottom stair.   
“Yes, Where do you want to eat?”  
“Oh, I dunno. We could eat at that greasy fish place close to the beach?”   
“Y’know I hate greasy food.” He stated as he grabbed his keys off the coffee table. “You’re lucky i like you enough to go with you.” They walked outside and into the car.   
“And I’m lucky to have a friend who can pay for dinner tonight!” She chimed brightly, putting on her seatbelt.  
____________________________________________________________________________

“Have you ever thought of getting a tattoo?” Equius asked, stirring sugar into his iced tea.   
“Once or twice.” Nepeta replied, sitting straighter. “Have you?”  
“Well I’ve been toying with a few ideas that stand out to me.” He said, almost seeming to trail off.   
“You aren’t planning to get Ampora’s name tattooed, right?”  
“Oh gosh, Nepeta! Nothing silly like that!” He said, getting flustered. “Now I don’t even want to tell you what I was planning on.”  
“Ugh, c’mon! You know you wanna tell me or else you wouldn’t have brought it up.”  
“That’s completely correct,” He smiled, pulling crumpled papers out of his pocket and smoothing them out on the table. “I keep seeing these symbols in my dreams, It could be a sign of...something?” He shrugged.  
“Yeah, a sign that you’re a doofus.” She retorted, grabbing the designs and bringing one of them closer so she could see. What she could see almost made her heart drop cold. The design was a crude drawing of an arrow with a line through the bottom of it. It was a deep, bright, blue in color. It was the same thing she’d seen the Equius-Monster wearing during her seizure. What did it mean, if Equius was seeing this too? She forced herself to set down the picture before Equius got suspicious.  
“A little goofy looking, and there’s probably no way they can give it a color that’s that bright, but it looks cool.” She said, forcing any wavering out of her voice. “Now let’s look at the other one.” This one was also minimal, but oddly, it made Nepeta’s chest fill with a strange almost nostalgic feeling. It was just four lines in the outline of a diamond. She tilted her head and nodded.   
“I really like this one, Eq.”  
“Hmm, yes. I was thinking of getting it where my thumb meets my hand.” He pointed to the extra fleshy bit under his thumb for emphasis.   
“I know I’m repeating myself, but I really do like this one. In fact, would you be pissed if I got it, too?”  
“Like a...matching tattoo?”   
“Well I mean we don’t have to get it in the same spot, but yeah, I guess.”   
“Of hor- Excuse me- of course you can, in fact I was kind of hoping you’d say that.”   
The waitress set their food down shortly after that, a burger and fries for Nepeta and a small salad for Equius. They began to eat. It wasn’t two minutes into their food when Nepeta’s phone went off. She looked at it, and upon seeing Tavros’ name light up her screen, she picked it up.  
“Yeah, Tav?”  
“Hey we just got a cat at the shelter, but we also got a new dog, and there really isn’t-”  
“So you want to know if we have room for another cat so that both animals have somewhere to live. Because the answer is a yes, obviously. I thought you knew me better than that. If you want to bring him to the party, I’ll take him home afterwards.”  
“That sounds great but there’s something that you should know about ol’ GCat before you pick her up.”  
Nepeta felt her heart drop. She prayed it wasn’t anything like feline luekemia, that was expensive to treat and a very serious condition. “Alright, hit me with it. We already have a few amputated slash blind cats.”  
“Amputated slash blind?” Tavros asked with a mixture of amusement and derision in his tone.  
“Yes. Sometimes I can’t figure out the when I should use and or or and so I use the word slash because it works well. Now what problem does this cat have?” She asked, feeling her temper rise just a smidgen. She really needed to learn how to be less defensive. She really sucked at taking criticism.   
“Well it’s got epilepsy, apparently. I thought since you have epilepsy, you two’d get along.”  
“Yeah that’s no biggie. I guess Meulin and Kurloz will have to deal with an inside cat until we can find a forever home for it. You said her name’s GCat?”  
“Yeah, weird name, I know. She’s sweet though.”  
“Bring her to the party. Do you have a crate to carry her in?”  
“You know I do! She’ll be sedated so she’ll probably be really chill and sleep for a few hours.” He paused. “So it’s a deal?”  
“You make it sound like we’re dealing drugs” She looked at Equius, raising his eyebrow at the mention of drugs. She stuck her tongue out playfully. “But yeah, it’s a deal.”  
“Okay, see you there.” Nepeta set her phone down as Tavros ended the call. “Tavros is bringing a cat with epilepsy to the party so I can take it to the rescue.” She picked up her cheeseburger, and quickly scarfed it down.   
“Are we ready to leave?” Equius asked, having paid the bill while she was on the phone.  
“Yeah.” She pulled herself out of the booth and offered her hand to help him out. “I hope there’ll be s’mores. I’m still a little hungry.”  
“It’s a beach party, I’m assuming there’ll be a bonfire. And one can’t have a bonfire without s'mores.”  
“Then what are we doing here talking? Let’s get to the car.” She said as she skipped out to the BMW and sat in the passenger seat.   
He gracefully sat down and put the car in reverse, backing out of the parking spot and towards the beach.   
Once they got there they found most everyone curled around the bonfire with blankets wrapped around each other. The first two people she could make out in the firelight was Vriska and Terezi, the light from Vriska’s Nintendo DS lit up their faces. Terezi’s head was on Vriska’s shoulder as Vriska stared intently at the screen. Eridan walked up to Equius an draped him in the other half of a blanket, and they sat down and started talking.Nepeta saw the faces of everyone around her, all seemingly coupled up, except for Jade. She sat down and started a conversation.  
“So I take it Tavros hasn’t shown up yet?” She asked Jade.  
“Nope! I’ll bet he got half-way here and forgot something and had to circle back., silly dude.” She said fondly, shaking her head. “So how are you feeling?”  
“Pretty good I guess. Tavros is bringing me another cat for the rescue, so y’know that’s… a thing that’s happening.” Jade always seemed so perceptive, it made Nepeta feel a little transparent at times.   
“Yeah, that’s probably what that doofus forgot!” She laughed, “Hey I think that’s his truck now. Let’s go over there, huh?” Nepeta got up and walked over with her to the new vehicle parked in Feferi’s indulgently large driveway. Tavros hopped out of the driver’s seat and waved at the girls, squinting in the moonlight. He grabbed the cat’s cage from out of his car, and walked towards them.   
“One GCat, comin’ your way!” He gently passed the cage to Nepeta. “Wow! Looks like everyone’s cuddled up at the bonfire, huh?” He observed aloud, not-so-subtly sliding a pitying glance Nepeta’s way.  
“Looks like it! You wanna cuddle up with us, Nepeta?” Jade said, turning to her.  
“Nah. I think there are a lot of people over there and I wanna make sure this cat doesn’t feel overwhelmed when she wakes up.” Tavros opened his mouth like he wanted to tell her that it was unlikely that the cat would wake up anytime soon, but she quickly spoke over him. “Besides, I really don’t want to be your guys’ third wheel, so go on! Go cuddle by the bonfire and look at the stars. I’ll be fine over here.” She made a shooing gesture with her hand and watched as they walked off, hand in hand. She sat down on the edge of the driveway and looked into the cage to see what looked to be, it was hard to tell, a pure white cat.  
“Mind if I sit by you?” A voice asked from behind her. She whipped her head around and what she saw made her blood run cold. Gamzee Makara, his face paint making him look grim and otherworldly in the dim lighting. She swallowed and nodded her head. He sat down next to her and begun a conversation.  
“So how are ya. It’s been awhile.” He said looking out at the bonfire.  
“Oh! I’ve been good, I guess” She said softly following his eyes to the happy couples.   
“That’s good.” He said.  
“And you.”  
“Miraculous.” It was silent for awhile after that, until Gamzee spoke again. “Do you believe in reincarnation?”  
She was caught off guard by his question and took a few seconds to answer. “I dunno, why do you ask?”  
“Because I’m lookin’ at all these happy couples, right? I see them everywhere I go and I can’t help feeling a little envious of ‘em.” He paused, licking his lips. “Sometimes I wonder how awful of a person I’d had to have been, that the gods wouldn’t make someone that could love me.”   
Nepeta felt her fear of him instantly shrivel and replace itself with shame, how could she be afraid of someone that sad and lonely?  
“Here,” she said, opening the crate. “Here’s a cat I want you to meet.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay so just to clear things up, Gamzee and Nepeta will not be a romantic thing in this AU. Their sibling-in-laws, and I wanted to see to give Gamzee more depth, as he will play a major part in the story later on.


	4. In Which Nepeta Eats S'mores and the Author Shamelessly Plugs Exposition

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi everyone!! Im so super sorry about the extended wait!! I've been super busy with school, work, and college applications lol. Some thanks are in order! Thank you so so much for reviewing Karma, and ClockworkDinosaur!!! I appreciate it a lot. Also this chapter goes kinda heavy so watch out for: Family death, gore, mentions of amputation, and drug use! Gosh that sounds grim, but it's not as bad as it seems. Anyway, I do poof-read this myself so if theres an error, please tell me so I can go back and change it! Thanks for reading!

They sat there for a couple of minutes, making small talk while they looked at the sleeping cat.  
“Y’know I’m thinking about buying a new place to live.” Gamzee said.  
“Really?” Nepeta replied absentmindedly.  
“Yeah, ever since Kar moved in with Dave it’s been kinda quiet at the apartment.” It was no secret he didn’t like Dave. When he and Dave had first met, Dave was helping Rose with a psychology paper, by looking up information about cults. As fate would have it, he found information about The Church of the Mirthful Messiahs and made some type of derogatory joke about it just as Gamzee walked in the room. Even though Gamzee knew that his Father’s religion was a cult, Nepeta knew he still found it hard to detach himself from it’s teachings. He really didn’t like Dave after that.  
“It’s gonna be miraculous when it’s finished.” he completed his sentence, drawing Nepeta out of her thoughts. ‘You really need to pay attention more,’ She thought to herself.  
“I’m sorry,” She apologized, “When what’s finished?”  
“The place I’m thinkin’ about buyin’. It’s a two-story, where he upper part is completely shut out from the lower. I was thinkin’ about maybe puttin’ a nightclub on the bottom floor. It used to be a candy shop.”  
“Oh! That sounds really cool!” She was about to say more, when the roar of an engine interrupted them, and a pair of headlights came into view. The car, a sleek sports car, pulled into the driveway and parked. The door opened and Roxy climbed out, walking towards them.  
“What’re you guys doing over here?” She asked.  
“Cooing over a cat.” Nepeta replied, gesturing to the crate.  
“Oh, does it have a name?”  
“It’s name is GCat. Ain’t that weird?” Gamzee spoke. “I think that if Nepeta doesn’t mind, I might just take him home with me.”

“Yeah, I mean I’m going to keep her for a few weeks to do some observations and take him to the vet and stuff, but after that, she’s all yours.” Nepeta smiled. “Hey Roxy? Where’s Jane?”  
“Oh!” Roxy frowned. “Janey and her younger brother are on some business trip with their dad. Ever since Janey inherited Betty Crocker, she’s been busy, busy, busy. But, she’ll be home next week!”  
That was another weird thing Nepeta never could wrap her mind around. Jane Crocker, who as far as Nepeta knew, wasn’t even related to Feferi or her mother, was given the rights and ownership of Betty Crocker enterprises. Once Nepeta heard that Feferi’s mom and Jane’s father had a brief fling, resulting in her technical claim on the company. When Feferi’s mother was arrested last year, Jane stepped up and took over, which was probably for the best, as Feferi was eighteen at the time and had no idea how to run a company. Of course, Jane was only 21, but she got her business degree before most others her age even started college.  
“Oh good!” Nepeta said, “Do you think she’ll have any new recipes or products for us to test?”  
“Not that kinda meeting, more profit and growth, and yada,yada, yada” Roxy replied, rolling her eyes.  
“Hey! You losers gonna come over here or mope the entire time?” Vriska shouted, from a few yards away. Nepeta looked up to see her standing with her hands cupped around her mouth by the fire.  
“The only loser here is Terezi, because she’s dating your flat ass” Roxy yelled back in a way that was both playful and competitive. She looked at the two sitting next to her and stood up, making her way to the bonfire.  
“Guess I’m followin’,” Gamzee shrugged and followed, with Nepeta walking behind him, cat carrier in tow.  
She plopped down by Equius, and wrapped herself in part of his and Eridan’s blanket. He wrapped an arm around her shoulder.  
“You have enough of the blanket? We could always unfold it again.” He said calmly  
“Like hell w-we are, I’m comfortable like this.” Eridan said snootily.  
“Like I even wanted your shitty blanket.” She retorted, sticking her tongue out, but not moving an inch. She watched the other two settle in. Roxy cuddled with Dirk and Jake, while Gamzee sat with Jade and Tavros.  
Nepeta took a look around and made not of all the couple there. There were the ones she had already seen, Terezi and Vriska, Jade and Tav, Jake and Dirk. Feferi, Aradia, and Sollux were sitting on a log, obviously, as this was Feferi’s party. But she saw that there were more people than just that, Karkat and Dave made it, as did Rose and Kanaya.  
“So are you guys ready to play?” Feferi asked, from her perch, the moonlight hitting her hair so that it looked like an oil spill.  
“I’m sure we’d be happy to play,” Karkat said loudly, “If we knew what the fucking rules were!”  
“She’s getting there!” Eridan shouted back, “Giwe her a fuckin’ minute!”  
“And the rules are,” She exclaimed loudly, stopping the argument before it began, “That you don’t have to answer anything you’re uncomfortable with.” A few grumbles arouse, but Feferi quickly talked on. “And that if you are asked a question, then it’s your turn to choose the next person.”  
“What kinda game is this?” Terezi asked.  
“I call it ‘Truth or Truth’! It’s like ‘Truth or Dare’ without having to get up and move.”  
“Hear, Hear, for that!” Jake yelled out, taking sips out of a metal flask. “Three cheers for this scrumptious apple cider as well!”  
“Jake!” Feferi said, “Why don’t you start us off?”  
“Oh! Okay, well let’s see here…” He trailed of, looking around the fire for a person to ask. Eyes widening and face lighting up, he replied, “Hey Vriska! How did you and Terezi meet?”  
The group went quiet, and leaned in. Vriska and Terezi looked at each other and spoke in soft voices, until Vriska nodded her head.  
“Alright losers!” Vriska boomed “You guys are all about to learn how me and my girlfriend met, became pirates, and overthrew capitalism!” She grabbed her phone and turned on the flashlight, putting under her face for spooky effect. She took a deep breath and started her tale:  
“So I actually have two older sisters, Marquise and Aranea. My mom was pretty cool, I guess. She didn’t make us eat veggies, or go do anything stupid, like school. But she did want us to learn something things.” She paused for dramatic effect. “Like how to crack a safe or pick a pocket. Me and Aranea were awesome at it, of course. But not as awesome as Marquise. She left when I was five, but I really looked up to her. We were like this family of really badass thieves, until Aranea’s dumbass friend was all like ‘That’s fucking illegal, you guys.’ and I was taken to from foster home to foster home for a bit, until I ended up at one across the street from Zahhak’s house and when I went to school I ended up meeting this other foster kid at D&D, who just so happened to be a giant blind asshole named Terezi. We were really shitty friends, and then really good friends, and then started making out. Booyah.” She put her phone back in her pocket and snuggled closer to Terezi, who in turn, made a gagging noise and tried to move further away.  
“Okay so who am I gonna pi--Tavros.” Vriska said, “How did you lose your legs?”  
Tavros groaned and looked at her.  
“Vriska you already know how I lost my legs.”  
“Yeah, buuuuuuuuuut-” She drawled, “it’s a good story.”  
“Okay.” He sighed. “So when I was like ten, I was trying to show that I could be just as cool as my cousins, and I climbed up a rock formation, but I got too high, and then got worried than I wouldn’t be able to climb down, I panicked, blacked out, and lost consciousness. Next thing I know I’m in a helicopter with my mom and she’s, um, she’s holding my hand and, uh, she’s like crying a lot? And I’m thinking to myself, that I must have died and know my mom was gonna have to pay for my funeral and a lot of people were gonna cry. I think I was on morphine or something. Anyway I can’t really see my body or anything and I’m kinda numb so I don’t realize that my legs are...well.. Y’know. I blacked out again, then woke up in the hospital. They had already amputated my legs, so when I tried to get out of the hospital bed, I fell out.”  
Nepeta looked around in shock, and met Karkat’s eyes. They shared the same non-verbal thought. “How is this a ‘good story’?”.  
“And that’s how I lost my legs,” he finished. “Hey Aradia?”  
“Yeah?” Aradia replied.  
“Tell us a ghost story. A real one.”  
“Okay. How about the time I spoke to my mom?”  
“AA, you don’t have to talk about anything you don’t wan-” Sollux said, before he got cut off.  
“It’s fine, Sollux.” She said, “So as you all know, when I was 12, I got into a really bad car accident and fell into a coma for about a month. During my coma I don’t remember a lot. I remember right before I woke up I had this crazy dream. There was this woman with horns and she was fighting this other woman with horns on a spaceship, and it was seriously epic. I don’t know how I know this, but the one with the wands and flashing eyes was supposed to be the good guy. But, she got speared in the stomach with a trident. As she lay there bleeding, she turned and looked at me and said, “You’re the last of us. You can’t die again. Not this soon. Wake-up.” And I did. I shot up, and realized I was in a hospital bed. I looked to my right and saw my mom. She smiled and said, “Thank god. You’re alive.” and I opened my arms so she could hug me, she frowned and shook her head. Then she stood up and walked towards the door. The last words she said to me were, “You are stronger than I hope you will ever have to know.” I was really confused. Then she walked through the wall, and for a flash I saw how she really looked. She was covered in blood and dirt, her head was at an odd angle, her left arm hanging on my a mere tendon. Her wedding band, which was always shining on her finger, was dull. It scared me and caused my heart to pound, which made the sensors go off. Nurses came rushing into the room and instantly went to work checking my vitals. They explain that there had been an accident, and that I had been in a coma. After a while they left, and my dad was still on his way. I got up and tried walking around the room a little, and what did I find behind the door to my hospital room? My mother’s wedding band. I held it in my hand. When my father came in he told me my mother had died, during the accident. After that I started hearing ghosts everywhere. I learned to ignore them after a while.”  
Everyone was quiet, and the only sound was the wood crakling in the raging bonfire. Aradia sat back down seemingly forgetting that she had to ask anyone anything. Feferi opened her mouth, probably to end the game, when Gamzee cleared his throat.  
“I guess I got a truth to spill.” He drawled.  
“Gamzee, give us a truth of your choosing.” Aradia declared.  
“Alright, well I’m sure most of y’all knew this already but when I was thirteen I hit a rough patch. A really bad, rough patch.” He started. Nepeta looked at Terezi, who clenched her jaw and nodded. The bonfire suddenly felt a little too close, a little too hot. He licked his lips, further smearing the white paint on them, and continued on. “Most of y’all don’t know why though.” He subtly nodded at Nepeta, as if to say ‘Thanks for not telling anyone until I could’. “Me n’ Kurloz don’t have the same mom, Kurloz’s mom was a high priestess that got excommunicated. Mine’s still around. Kinda. Anyway my dad was a high priest. And a demi-god. And a cult-leader. We lived out in Montana in this little compound. He had a decent number of followers. He said that he was ordained to bring the Mirthful Messiahs. They were these two gods, one representing tragedy, the other comedy. That was me n’ Kurloz. Apparently Dad n’ Kurloz got into a nasty fight when Kurloz was twelve, I was six. I think he was telling dad, who we called The Grand Highblood, that he knew that dad killed his mom. And The Grand Highblood got really mad. They disappeared and when he came back he told me Kurloz had taken on a vow of silence to repent for his heresy.” At this point Gamzee looked incredibly uneasy.“Kurloz came back and his mouth was, uh, it was. Uh. It was shut. Permanently. I think The Grand Highblood was a little worried I would start questioning stuff too, so he started feeding me. He told me it was this stuff called sopor, and only god’s could eat it without dying. He kept me drugged up and complacent. I was kept in the temple which was the biggest house on the compound. One day when I was almost thirteen, Kurloz ran away. He told me the night before that he met a girl who wasn’t from the compound and he was gonna get some help for me. Everyone was real scared because we didn’t know where he was. Then one day the FBI came in with a SWAT team and tore the compound apart. I don’t really remember who did it, but I got tore up in the fight. Something scratched up my face. They took me to the hospital and worked to get me off sopor. They didn’t know what it was, and The Grand Highblood was dead so he couldn't tell them. I was goin’ through some pretty bad withdrawls. Sometimes the pain was so bad I’d hallucinate. Then I’d yell at y’all on pesterchum. My bad.”  
“And I think that’s it for the night!” Feferi shouted out nervously. Everyone looked at each other, as they were unsure of what to do with the information they just gathered.  
“Wait a second.” Gamzee said. “I had a question all up and ready for askin’.”  
“Okay, last question though.” Feferi said nervously, you could see the sweat bead on her brow.  
“Nice. Vriska, how did you manage to lose your arm?”  
Vriska gasped. “I knew I was forgetting something! I was gonna testify against my mom and she sent a bomb to my foster home. I opened it, and didn’t get out of the way in time. Oh well. I have prosthetics now. And she’s in jail. I still won in the end.” She said.  
“Can we make s’mores now?” Dirk asked.  
“I would love nothing more.” Kanaya replied. “Feferi will you get the supplies?” Feferi raced inside without another word, and then came back out s’mores in hand. The group made s’mores and made up constellations until it was light out. At some point GCat woke up and people took turns playing with her. At around 5:00 am, Equius and Nepeta said their adieus, and packed GCat into Equius’ Rolls Royce, much to his chagrin, and started for her house.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Remember in chapter one, I said that everyone got their injuries independently? Well I hope this chapter explains how a little better! Thank you for reading, and please feel free to review! :) (Bonus points to whoever can guess where I got Gamzee's bar idea from)


	5. In Which Nepeta Goes to a Hip-Hip Class

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey! Once again, I am so super sorry about the wait! But here's the new chapter! Thank you very much to everyone who reviewed and left Kudos! Heck, Thanks to those who just read it! Anyway I edit these myself so If there are any spelling and grammar mistakes, please let me know. Constructive Criticism is always welcome!

Terezi woke up again after having the same bad dream. It was the same one she’d been having for years. It never came in clearly, but rather she dreamt it in foggy noises and smells and feelings that drifted in and out, like a far away radio station. Shivering from the cold sweat traveling down her back, she crawled out of the bed,and walked to the other side.  
“Vriska?” She whispered and reached a hand out, feeling for a shoulder. She felt nothing but thin air and lowered her hands, finding the bed empty. Her hands scrambled over the sheets feeling for her fiance, she felt nothing but the flannel sheets she put on the bed two days ago. She thought about the night before. She came home from the library late, she had a Pre-Law paper due in two days and still needed to heavily edit it. By the time she got off the bus and got to her apartment, she went straight from the doorway to her bed. She was still wearing her shoes.   
‘Was Vriska here when I got home?,’ she thought? ‘What if something happened and Vriska didn’t make it back?’ The thought jumped into her head, unbidden. ‘What if she’s alone somewhere, in an alley or a wrecked uber, with no cell phone. Her heart sped up and she began sweating again. What if this was all her fault? She took a deep breath and exhaled, some of her anxiety lessening. Vriska was probably just at the computer again.She silently crept into the closet-like second bedroom that they had converted into an office.  
“Vriska?” She whispered once more.  
“Hmm?” Vriska murmured. Terezi let out a sigh of relief, the rest of her worries fleeing her body, like a flock of birds.  
“What time is it?”   
“Three.” Vriska did have to tell her it was three in the morning, just as Terezi didn’t need sight to know what Vriska was doing on the computer at 3 A.M.  
“Vriska, it’s time to go to bed.” Terezi pinched her nose. “Stop searching for ghosts,” she said softly, walking to the desk to give Vriska a kiss on the cheek.  
“I’m so close. Listen to this: Faustine Quremias. Thats a fake name if I ever heard of one. Faustine means luck, and Quremias is totally an anagram for Marquise. The ages match up, too. She even looks like her!”  
“Vriska.” Terezi said, interrupting before this could become a rant. “That could mean anything. Sometimes people have weird names. This is bordering on obsessive.”  
“Terezi. My sister didn’- didn’t just disappear into thin air, people don’t do that. She’s out there somewhere, I just need to shed some light on where.” Vriska dragged her hands down her face. “She’s so close. Shes -”  
“Not getting found tonight.” Terezi found herself growing impatient, she had to stop by the firm she was interning at, at six A.M. to do some last-minute file re-checking for an upcoming case. The dream she had just woke up from flittied into her mind, she could hear the shling of a sword and she could smell metal. She scrunched up her face, to make the memory of her dream dissipate. “Vriska, you have therapy and school tomorrow. You need to go to bed.”  
“And you need to get off my case,” Vriska snapped at her.”You wanna talk about therapy? You purposely skip your sessions.”  
“How did you even find out about that? Y’know what it doesn’t matter.” She shook her head. “Do you honestly think digging up the past is how to do any of this? You need to leave the past behind and enter the future.” Terezi said gingerly, reaching to hold Vriska’s hand. Vriska snathced her hand away and got out of her chair. She walked towards the bedroom, Terezi followed.  
“I’m finding my sister.” Vriska said, her voice low and certain. This was not up for debate, she decided.  
“Fine, say you find Marquise!” Terezi all but shouted, desperately trying to cling to any sense of logic and maturity. “Then what? You discover that she’s a con artist, or a cat burglar, or something just as terrible. She didn’t have the help you did, Vriska. She’s probably just as much of a criminal as your mother is.”  
“Shut up!” Vriska screamed, tears in her voice. Someone above them beat at their floor, obviously unhappy about being woken up at such an early hour. Vriska disappeared into the closet for a few seconds and came back. Terezi could hear sniffles as she set something heavy on the ground. A drawer opened and she heard Vriska throw some clothes into what she assumed was an overnight bag.  
“Vriska.” Terezi said quietly, but firm.   
“That’s your problem.” Vriska spat. “You still see me as I was when I was 14! You see me as your responsibility! You see me as someone yyou have to constantly run damage control for! You see me as this… This wild kid who has no sense of reality!   
“Vriska.” Terezi’s voice was nothing more than a whisper. There was a lump in her throat, and her eyes felt itchy. She didn’t really think of Vriska that way, did she?  
“No! You don’t get to softly say my name and tear up, like you didn’t start this. You don’t get to make me feel like some immature teen!” Vriska was fully sobbing now. She walked out of the bedroom and towards the front door of the apartment.  
“Vriska!” Terezi shouted after her, “You can’t just run away! You scream at me to treat you like an equal and all you do is throw a fit and try to leave! Vriska spun with a startling speed.   
“I fucking tried! I’ve worked so hard to move past everything I went through! I’ve gone to therapy! I’ve taken my meds and I’ve even gotten a fucking job and I’m in college and I’m trying to be better! For myself!” Her face was contorted with rage and sobs. She choked when she spoke. “I’ve been growing! But never as much as you want me to! Just when I think I’m starting to figure everything out, you- y-you” She stops, her cries too prominent to make coherent sound. “I’ll never be enough for you, will I!” Terezi froze.  
Without another word, Vriska walked out, slamming the door behind her. Terezi leaned her head against the door and cried until her 5:00 alarm sounded, signaling that she had to get ready for the firm. She walked to the small bathroom, planning on taking a quick shower and getting coffee on the way, but when she entered, she smelt Vriska’s overpriced shampoo and decided to call in sick.

“Well,” Nepeta thinks, “It’s not a day out until I’ve managed to get hurt.”

Dance was a class she and Equius like to do as a way to stay fit. They both did ballet as children, and decided that it would be fun to do in college. A few months after doing ballet, Nepeta signed up for the hip-hop class on Tuesdays. It was fun, and she was good at it. Rose and Dave took it too, so it wasn’t like she was didn’t have friends there already.  
When she went woke up that morning, she felt like something bad was going to happen. Meulin drove her to the studio and she got out of the car slowly, feeling uneasy for some reason that she couldn’t seem to place. It felt like more than a seizure, like a feeling on encroaching tragedy that would become apparent as soon as she opened the studio door. When she entered the building, she could see that the group had already begun stretching out, so she slipped into place by the pair.   
“Have you spoken to Terezi?” Rose hissed out of the corner of her mouth  
“No? Why?” Nepeta reached down and touched her toes.  
“She and Vriska had a spat.” Rose pulled her arm to the side. “It ended when Vriska apparently left the apartment, and called Kanaya to see if she could stay the night.”  
Nepeta was flabbergasted by the news. A thousand questions had already sprung into her head. Who started the fight? Probably Terezi, now that she thought about it. If Vriska wanted to fight it would have been super public and for a super stupid reason.   
“Why were they fighting?” Nepeta asked.  
“Can’t say. All I know, is that when I woke up, Vriska was on my couch, sobbing into my girlfriend’s shoulder. I made a silent escape and Kanaya texted me to tell me that they fought.” Rose sat down and touched her toes, bending completely in half. Dave rolled and stretched his shoulders, from his spot at Rose’s right.  
“Terezi wasn’t at the firm, when I stopped by,” Dave said.  
“Why were you there?” Nepeta asked. Dave was getting his degree in child psychology, why was he going to a law firm?  
“Wanted to peep some files.” He shrugged.  
“Find anything good?” Rose asked.  
“Nah. Like I said, She wasn’t there.” Dave readjusted his glasses as the instructor walked to the front of the studio and class begun.   
It was a routine they all had been practicing for months. A song from the nineties with a bouncy beat. It was staged to looked like a break-dance battle that, at the bridge of the song, would converge into one dancing group, resulting in an intricately choreographed routine that was completely in sync. It was intensely challenging and Nepeta loved every second of it. They were going to have a dance showcase a month from now. Needless to say, the dance looked pretty good. They were working on the bridge part exclusively today. The team was having a hard time converging. If they got to their places in time, they were out of line. If they got in line, they weren’t in time.   
The class got to their position on either side of the room and the instructor turned on the stereo, and started counting the beats. “5. 6, 7, 8”   
The group danced their way to the middle of the studio floor, Nepeta lined up on either side of two dancers, Boldir and Malleck, she thought.  
“Polypa! Out of alignment!” The instructor shouted.   
“My bad!” She yelled out and corrected. Nepeta knew she took a boxing class before she went to hip-hop, because her hands were still wrapped when she was there.  
They went again and again and again. No breaks. Nepeta started to actually work-up a sweat. They went again and she tripped, landing on her hands. Shakily she got up, and returned to her spot on the other side of the room.  
“Maybe we should take a break, another student asked, panting.  
“If we can manage to do this right, just once with no one screwing up, then you guys can take five.”  
They went again, Nepeta slid and twisted to her spot in the middle. They all kicked and swivled they’re hips. Finding her assigned partner, they danced around together. She stepped on his knee and jumped up. She backflipped and landed, without a second to catch her breath she busted out into her pose, smack dab in the center of the room as, the rest of the dancers ‘collapsed’ on the floor simultaneously. With the song finished, and the routine done perfectly at least once. The dancers went to their duffles to grab towels and water bottles. Nepera doused her towel with her bottle and threw it over her neck, dabbing her face. She chugged what was left of the water in her bottle and stood up, intending to fill it again. Her phone buzzed in her duffel bag. Sighing, she picked it up and went to the water fountain. The vet for the cat rescue was calling.  
“Hello, Nepeta speaking?” She unscrewed her water bottle and began filling it up.  
“Yes, this is Dr. Chaddock’s office. GCat is spayed and up to date on all her vaccinations. She’s ready to get picked up.”  
“Oh okay! I’ll pick her up at 5:30-ish?”  
“Works for us!” The chipper receptionist promptly hung up.  
Nepeta tossed her phone into her bag and took a long drink from her bottle, and set it back down into her duffle bag, walking back onto the floor. She did a couple of stretches and waited for the rest of their team to get back to the floor. Practice resumed and they got the part of the song down pat. They did a quick cool down and class ended.   
“Hey, Rose?” Nepeta shouted, running up to the bench where Rose was sitting  
“Yes?” Rose asked.  
“Are you driving today or is it Dave?” After practice the trio would usually get lunch together and chat.  
“Actually, I can’t make it to lunch today.” Dave said from behind her. She squeaked and turned around.  
“Geez Dave, did you even walk over here? I didn’t even hear your footsteps!” Nepeta said.   
Rose rolled her eyes. Dave was unbelievably sneaky. He once lived on her couch for a week and she thought she’d have to stage an intervention. Nothing was being eaten in her fridge. As it turns out, he was watering down her juice and milk and eating small things from her cupboard. He said he didn’t want to be rude. Rose assumed that he grew up in a toxic household, but didn’t say as such. Realizing she had stopped paying attention, Rose tuned back into the conversation.   
“I have a thing I’m doing with Karkat in like an hour and a half, and I have to shower. If I don’t I’ll stink like a homeless man in a 90’s film.” Dave said   
“Ewwww.” Nepeta teased.  
Dave chuckled and gave her a big stinky hug. He then bumped knuckles with Rose, and went out to his car. Rose and Nepeta walked to Rose’s van. It had a large airbrushed scene of a wizard fighting an eldritch beast. Rose told her that it was for ‘ironic’ reasons. Nepeta got into the passenger side and took out her phone to text Gamzee.  
Nepeta: Hey Gamz Gcat is ready whe do you want me to drop her by? Nepeta sent another text.  
Nepeta: On second thought whats ur address?  
Gamzee: i was just gonna call u up. Buying a new place NEway u can hold gkitty until i settle in? Should take a week or two?  
Nepeta: no biggie man :)  
Rose and Nepeta pull into the cheap Vietnamese place and sat down on the plastic-wrapped seats. They ordered their food and sipped on fountain drinks. Rose talked about one of her psychology professors.  
“He idolizes Freud! Can you believe that! Freud!” Rose shouted. The food was delivered to their tables and Nepeta’s phone buzzed again.  
Terezi: Hey can we hang out? I’ve had a really rough day.


End file.
